Vacuum cleaner retracting reel



June 5, 1951 o. w. TIMM 2,555,560

VACUUM CLEANER RETRACTING REEL Original Filed Sept. 25, 194 4 Z II INVENTOQ 3y Orro W 77mm Hap/21g Meal-4 F05 TEPdrhhPF/S F02 7715 HEM Arrows 5Y5 Patented June 5, 1951 UNITED STATES FATENT OFFICE VACUUM CLEANER BETRACTING REEL Otto W. Timm, Van Nuys, Calif., assignor to Timm Aircraft Corporation, Van Nuys, Calif., a corporation of California 4 Claims. 1

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No, 555,645, filed September 25, 1944, now Patent No. 2,503,568 dated April ll, 1950, to which reference is hereby made for a disclosure of one manner in which the present invention may be employed.

My invention relates to the vacuum cleaner art and, more particularly, to a Vacuum cleaner adapted for household or hotel use or the like and having a number of improvements over standard types of such devices.

A primary object of the invention is to provide a novel reel construction for holding a power cord, or cable, such that the cord may be unwound to any desired portion of its length and such that the reel may be actuated to rewind the cord thereon. Such a construction, obviously, is of particular utility in connection with a vacuum cleaner such as described above, and it is also an object of the invention to provide such a reel device in a vacuum cleaner, but I do not desire to be limited thereto.

Additional objects will also be evident from the following specification and the drawing, which is for the purpose of illustration only and in which:

Fig. l is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the invention, mounted in a vacuum cleaner; and

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing, I show a housing l5 having a bottom wall 58, the housing being divided by a vertical partition wall i9 into a motor chamber 20 and a filter chamber 2|. The housing also has a front wall 23 and a back wall 24. The rounded top portion 25 of the housing I5 is provided at its upper end with a fiat flange plate 28 provided with an opening 2'! communicating with the motor chamber and provided with an opening 28 communicating with the filter chamber 22!. As will be noted, the openings 2'! and 28 are separated by the lateral partition wall 49. Secured to the flange plate 26, as by bolts 30, is a convex cap member 3! which is sealed relative to the flange plate by a peripheral sealing ring 32 carried in a suitable groove formed in the cap member, the sealing ring 32 preferably being formed of rubber or other resilient material. As illustrated in Fig. l, the cap member (it provides an external configuration which is a continuation of the configuration of the rounded top portion of the housing i5, and defines an upper chamber providing communication between the openings 2'! and 28, the cap member also being provided with a suitable handle 34 by which the housing may be carried from place to place.

Formed in the bottom wall E8 of the housing 15 beneath the motor chamber 20 is a bottom opening 35 of only slightly less cross-sectional area than the lower portion of the motor chamber, which is normally closed by a closure plate 35 fastened to the bottom wall 58 by suitable screws or otherwise. In the back wall 24 of the housing i5, adjacent the bottom wall ill, is provided a power cord opening 39, and directly thereabove is disposed a discharge opening 4!, the openings 39 and ti preferably being circular in form.

Disposed in the motor chamber 20 is an electric motor 52, the motor being in vertical position as shown and having a drive shaft 43 extending upwardly therefrom into the motor chamber. While the motor 42 is preferably vertically disposed in the motor chamber 20 to provide a compact unit having an external configuration which is convenient to handle and pleasing to the eye, which are advantages of the invention, still it is possible to mount such a motor horizontally in the motor chamber while obtaining the other advantages of the invention, and consequently both types of motor mountings are within the spirit of my invention. The motor -52 is supported on a' resilient supporting plate 44, preferably formed of rubber or other resilient material, which in turn is supported by a vertical pin 45 which extends into and is supported by a vertical sleeve member 41 provided at its lower end with an annular flange 48, which in turn is suitably secured to the upper face of the closure plate 335, by suitable screws or otherwise. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the periphery of the flange 45 is provided with a pair of notches 49 and 50 engaged by dogs 5! and 52, respectively, formed on arcuate detent members 53 and 54, respectively, the detent members being held in. engagement with the annular flange it; by tension springs 55 and 56 exerting a very light tension between the detent members. The detent members 53 and 54 are secured by pivot pins 58 and 55., respectively, to a circular lower plate 60 of a reel device 55. The reel device it also includes an upper plate 62 generally similar in configuration to the lower plate 00, having a depending annular coil flange 63 suitably secured to the lower plate fit, as by screws or otherwise, to form the reel device. Provided within the reel device (5! is a flat spiral spring 64, one end of which is riveted or otherwise secured to the inner wall of the coil flange 53 and the other end of which is riveted or otherwise suitably secured to the outer wall of the vertical sleeve member 41. An electric cable 56 passes through the power cord open ing 39 and is wound on the outer periphery of the coil flange 53 and suitably secured thereto while the spiral spring 64 is expanded to substantially its expansion limits so that by pulling the end of the cable 65 the reel device 61 will rotate on the vertical sleeve member 47 to permit withdrawal of the cable. Such rotation is in the direction of the arrow 5?, shown in Fig. 2, and, as will be understood, the dogs 5! and 52 move out of their notches 49 and 553 and continue to pass thereover during rotation of the reel device until the cable 68 is released, at which time the spiral spring 65 reverses the direction of rotation of the reel device until the dogs fall into the nearest notches, preventing further counterclockwise rotation of the reel device relative to the vertical sleeve member 47, as th same is shown in Fig. 2. By imparting a sudden slight jerk to the cable 65,

the reel device 5| first rotates slightly in the direction of the arrow 51, and the spiral spring 84 almost immediately reverses the direction of movement of the reel device, tending to reel in the cable. As the detent members 53 and 55 are eccentric-ally pivoted on their pins 58 and 59, the sudden rotation of the reel device 6! in a counterclockwise direction rotates the detent members on their pins, by centrifugal force and against the action of the springs 55 and 56, outwardly away from the periphery of the flange 58 so that the dogs 5| and 52 will not engage in the notches 49 and 50, which rotation continues so long as the cable is allowed to freely wind onto the reel device. If the running in of the cable is slowed down, by hand or otherwise, the springs 55 and 56 operate to draw the detent members 53 and 54 into engagement with the periphery of the flange 48 to engage the notches 49 and 59, thus stopping further winding of the reel device by the action of the spiral spring 64. This specific reel device construction is a valuable feature of the invention. The construction just described provides a convenient location for the reel device 6| and provides a resilient seat for the electric motor 42, which are further advantages of the invention.

Suitably fixed on the upper end of the electric motor 42 is a circular bracket plate 68 provided with a plurality of openings 59 therethrough communicating with the interior of the motor so that air can pass through said openings and through the motor to cool the same, passing out of lower openings 79 formed in the motor housing. The bracket plate 68 is provided with a vertical annular rim l2 having an annular groove 73, arcuate in cross, section, in its outer face which receives an annular sealing ring M, preferably formed of rubber or other resilient material, which in turn is retained in an annular groove 15 formed in a flange i5 projecting into the motor chamber 20. It will be apparent that the sealing ring Hi forms a fluid-tight seal between the bracket plate 68 and the flange 76 and-also serves to cushion vibration of the electric motor 42, such vibration also being cushioned by the resilient and the electric motor in response to rotation of the drive shaft 43. A conical filter element 84 is mounted on the top of the cap member 18, such filter element being of any type well known in the art and form-ed of fabric or other material such that it is adapted to filter air passing from the motor chamber 25 into the cap member through the central opening 19, and it is to be understood that any equivalent filte element is within the spirit of the invention. It is desirable in most installations to provide such a filter element 84, or the equivalent thereof, to prevent any fine dust from entering the electric motor 42 or from being exhausted back into the atmosphere.

Formed in the top of the upper plate 62 of the reel device BI is a pair of concentric annular grooves containing concentric electrical collecting rings 85 and 85, each of which is electrically connected to one of the wires of the electric cable 66, as is well known in the art, the collecting rings being electrically engaged by stationary brush contacts 81 and 88, respectively, the brush contacts being electrically connected by wires 93 and Si, respectively. The wire 99 is electrically connected to both the electric motor 42 and an auxiliary electric motor 92, and the wire 9i is con-' nected to an electric switch 93 mounted on the inner wall of the rounded top portion 25 of the housing i5 and having a switch lever 94 projecting from the housing so as to be readily accessible to an operator. One throw-contact of the electric switch 93, as is well known in the art, is connected by a wire 95 withth-e other side of the electric motor 42, and another throw-contact of the switch 93 is connected by a wire 91 with the other side of the auxiliary electric motor 92, as is well known in the art. movement of the switch lever 94, when the electric cable 66 is connected to a power source, will alternatively energize the electric motor 42 or the auxiliary electric motor 92, depending upon the position to which the switch lever has been moved by the operator, but both motors cannot be actuated at the same time, and this is an important feature of the invention. When the switch lever 9:2 is in the central or neutral position shown, neither of the motors 42 or 92 is energized. 7

Other elements of the vacuum cleaner construction shown in Fig. l are, described in detail in my copending application Serial No. 555,645, referred to above, and, since they form no part of the invention claimed herein, are not described in detail herein. 1 V

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many of the elements of my device, as illustrated and described hereinabove, may be replaced by other elements having substantially the same mode of operation without departing from the spirit of my invention, and consequently I do not desire to be limited to the specific form illustrated and described, but desire to be afforded the full scope of the following claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a reel device, the combination of: drum means adapted to receive a cable; means for rotatably supporting said drum means; stationary stop means adjacent one side of said drum means; a pair of detent members each of which is movably supported on said side of said drum means, each of said members being adapted to engage said'stop means to prevent rotation of said drum means in one direction; and resilient means connecting said members and normally resiliently urging them into such engagement with said stop As will be understood,

means, said members being automatically releasable from said stop means in response to rotation of said drum means in said direction.

2. In a reel device, the combination of: drum means for receiving a cable; means for rotatably supporting said drum means; stationary stop means disposed adjacent one side of said drum means and having notches providing stop shoulders located at opposite sides of the axis of rotation of said drum means; a pair of curved detent members pivoted intermediate their ends on said drum means and at opposite sides of the axis of rotation of said drum means, each of said detent members having a dog at one end adapted to engage said stop shoulders to prevent rotation of said drum means in one direction but permitting rotation of said drum means in the opposite direction; and springs connected between opposite ends of said detent members and sufficiently tensioned to pivot said detent members in a first direction to normally retain both of said dogs in engagement with said stop shoulders, said detent members being adapted to pivot in a second direction in response to rotation of said drum means in said opposite direction and against the tension of said springs to disengage said dogs from said shoulders, said detent members being also adapted to pivot in said second direction to maintain such disengagement in response to centrifugal force effected upon subsequent rotation of said drum means in said one direction.

3. In a reel device, the combination of: drum means for receiving a cable; means for rotatably supporting said drum means; stationary stop means disposed adjacent one side of said drum means and having notches providing stop shoulders located at opposite sides of the axis of rotation of said drum means; a pair of curved detent members pivoted intermediate their ends on said drum means and at opposite sides of the axis of rotation of said drum means, each of said detent members having a dog at one end adapted to engage said stop shoulders to prevent rotation of said drum means in one direction but permitting rotation of said drum means in the opposite direction and each of said detent members having a hole at each of its ends; and tension springs extending between opposite ends of said detent members with their ends hooked through said holes, said springs being sufficiently tensioned to pivot said detent members in a first direction to normally retain both of said dogs in engagement with said stop shoulders, said detent members being adapted to pivot in a second direction in response to rotation of said dr-um means in said opposite direction and against the tension of said springs to disengage said dogs from said shoulders, said detent members being also adapted to pivot in said second direction to maintain such disengagement in response to centrifugal force eifected upon subsequent rotation of said drum means in said one direction.

4. In a reel device, the combination of: drum means for receiving a cable; means for rotatably supporting said drum means; stationary stop means disposed adjacent one side of said drum means and having notches providing stop shoulders located at opposite sides of the axis of rotation of said drum means; a pair of curved detent members pivoted intermediate their ends on said drum means and at opposite sides of the axis of rotation of said drum means, each of said detent members having a dog at one end adapted to engage said stop shoulders to prevent rotation of said drum means in one direction but permitting rotation of said drum means in the opposite direction and each of said detent members having a hole at each of its ends; and tension springs extending betweenopposite ends of said detent members with their ends hooked through said holes, said springs being lightly and equally tensioned to pivot said detent members in a first direction to normally retain both of said dogs in engagement with said stop shoulders, said detent members being adapted to pivot in a second direction in response to rotation of said drum means in said opposite direction and against the tension of said springs to disengage said dogs from said shoulders, said detent members being also adapted to pivot in said second direction to maintain such disengagement in response to centrifugal force effected upon subsequent rotation of said drum means in said one direction.

OTTO W. TIMM.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 794,549 Putnam July 11,1905 1,253,415 Nesbitt Jan. 15, 1918 1,658,694 Sturge Feb. 7, 1928 1,675,140 Schenderlein June 26, 1928 1,993,617 Nason Mar. 5, 1935 2,041,353 Kenney et al May 19, 1936 2,130,497 Hueglin Sept. 30, 1938 2,246,863 Smellie June 24, 1941 2,256,870 Schaffer Sept. 23, 1941 2,375,917 Gross May 15, 1945 2,387,556 Baunach Oct. 23, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 453,966 Germany Dec. 23, 1927 

